featuring Prof (Stophouse), Mr. Gene Poole & Felipe Cuauhtli

“Minnesota Nice” features a few fresh MC’s, including Prof (Stophouse), Mr. Gene Poole & Felipe Cuauhtli, but somewhat lacks anything new from Slug and Ant. It does go well with their recent work, which has a been a nice step along the years, but I’m eagerly awaiting what’s next. It’s still nice to hear the love for MN and is a good start to a healthy Rhymesayers year.

Make sure to hit up the mini tour if you’re around the area – plus, you may just see me out there (and wouldn’t that be sweet)

New Zealand Reggae chilled for the cold winter

Quick, come up with 3 countries you think would be most likely to produce 2010’s chillest album. Was New Zealand on your list Didn’t think so, but it’s time to change that.

Lord Echo is the solo moniker of New Zealander, Mike Fabulous, a veteran of the Wellington music scene and member of the reggae band The Black Seeds. Melodies is his first solo release, and damn has he nailed it. He has taken a full complement of synthesizers, keyboards, guitars, basses, and horns, provided by both himself and a variety of other Wellington musicians, and crafted a masterpiece which blends reggae, dub, soul, afro, disco, funk, and […]

with Blue Scholars, The XX, Queen, Bowie, Red Man & Method Man!

While watching It’s Kind of a Funny Story, I ran across quite a decent soundtrack.

The initial song that caught me was The XX’s “Intro”. At the time, however, I recognized it as a Blue Scholars track I had heard a few months prior and forgot it was a remix. I’ll I could remember was how well Geo glided across this beat. So I Shazam’d it, Google’d “The XX Blue Scholars”, and BAM, I found Blue Scholars’ “Lumiere”.

After that a few other interesting tracks popped up, including Method Man & Redman’s “Da Rockwilder” and Queen & Bowie’s classic […]

with Watts in the House!

I’ve been listening to Starfucker’s upcoming album, Reptilians, for a few weeks now. There are a grip of tracks that are quite becoming, but like all Starfucker music, it takes some time to get use to. As progressive or experimental as you’d call it, their music has a kind of habituation curve. But once you get familiar with the new sound, you realize the ingenuity in their instrumentals and the beauty in their entangled vocals. There’s no doubt I’m a Starfucker fanatic and Reptilians is slowly becoming another addiction.

Lookout for a slightly more thoughtful look on Reptilians sometime soon.

"Mr. Impossible could do the most amazing things; impossible."

Swollen Members are back with a new album, Dagger Mouth, dropping this March. I’m a hell of a lot more optimistic for this than their 2009, Armed to the Teeth. Sounds more like the SM I’ve grown to smoke to.

Check out their second single, “Mr. Impossible”. Another beat to pillage and conquer by Rob the Viking with Mad Child & Prevail tearing it up with a few fresh cuts – Love the Cudi reference, lol –

Cudi gone acoustic with a cast member from How to Make It in America

I first heard the live version of “You Can Run” from This Bonus Track a couple days back and just picked this one up today. The difference between the two is mostly in quality, but Cudi’s contribution also changes up.

In this version, Cudi lays a bit more polished lines down and not to discredit Greenberg, but makes the track. I’ve seen the sentimental side of Cudi before, but I never knew that acoustics would flow so well with his rhymes […]

"Rappers come a dime a dozen, 'til you know somebody."

God damn, this shit catches. I don’t think it’s your name that’s got a ring to it, Mario – I think it’s the ring to it that’s got a ring to it (I hope I worded that right). But honestly, I can’t get this shit out of my f’ head! Enjoy :)

An Electro Space Rock Out

Coyote Kisses, formed by Joe Sussingham & Bryce Bresnan, is an electronic group that caught my attention from the first few seconds, which doesn’t happen often enough. I have a few songs of theirs to showoff, but first is their recently released, “Starchaser”.

“Starchaser” has a fine resemblance to a Daft Punk track and would probably fit right in to a Tron: Legacy scene. I’ll let one half of the duo, Joe, give you a feel for what they were going for, but make sure to stay tuned for my next post on them, I’d say it hits even HARDER[…]